But the Rockets could not celebrate taking a winning record into a three-day break in the schedule. That the Rockets have reached this three-day break in the schedule disappointed with their 8-6 record probably says a great deal about how far they have come, or even more about how they got here.

They are short and short-handed, playing with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady — representing more than $39 million of annual salary — sitting out. Yet, because they refused to consider themselves undermanned or overmatched, they cannot be satisfied with the success that has surprised others, but not themselves.

“I think we could do better,” Trevor Ariza said. “It's not bad. It's better than everybody expected. But for ourselves, I think we expected a little more. We're not doing bad, but we're not doing as well as I thought we could.”

That might be an indication of how they have won despite the challenges of the brutal early-season schedule and injury-altered roster. There have been stunning wins over their most frequent playoff tormentors, a few frustratingly close defeats and even one or two McGrady-inspired (driven) flare-ups of drama and potential distraction.

They have won admiration and praise, yet cannot enjoy that because they had so trained themselves to ignore comments and expect this and more. Instead, they looked at what could have been.

The Rockets believe they need to win their share of games that in the final minutes could go either way. They have not, losing to the Lakers at home in overtime, fading late against the Kings and Suns, and losing to a last-second dunk in Atlanta.

Only one lopsided loss

Even the loss in Dallas, their only lopsided defeat of the season, left them with a sense that it could have or should have been different because they built a 17-point lead in the first half.

“I like where we are,” coach Rick Adelman said. “We had a chance to win a couple more games than we did. We also won some maybe you would have thought we wouldn't. It's going to be this way all year for us. It's going to be a challenge for us to stay there. In this league, it can turn sour really quick in a short time. You've got to guard against that.”

The Rockets have spoken about needing to win games such as their past two victories, at Minnesota and against the Kings, considering the tougher tests to come, including this week's home games against the Mavericks and Spurs. But they also said they need to win their share of the games that could go either way down the stretch.

“People that pencil wins in are nuts,” Adelman said. “I look at the game (Friday) night. Portland loses to Golden State. The Clippers beat Denver. There are no givens in this league. You have to show up ready to play, especially our team. We don't have one or two guys who are going to dominate the game night after night. We have to be sure we play with energy.”

The Rockets believe they have made up for shortcomings with effort, ranking among the league leaders in steals, fast-break points, points in the paint and second-chance points, areas they believe come from playing harder than opponents.

“I'm pretty positive about the team,” general manager Daryl Morey said. “We'd rather have won more games, but we played very well against the hardest schedule in the league to this point. Because of how well we're playing, we're in close games against great teams. It's obviously something we're working on, how we close those games out, but I see progress every time we do it. It's a fair concern.”

McGrady, scheduled to practice today in the next step in his comeback from knee microfracture surgery, could be a part of that process. But Adelman said McGrady's return is more complicated than trying to determine his readiness.

Wild card in the deck

“People say throw him out there,” Adelman said. “It's not that simple. I'm not going to worry about it. Just move on, worry about the team and worry about what's next. With Tracy coming back, there's a whole lot of things we have to deal with before we consider that. For now, I'm trying to deal with the guys on our team. Tracy's situation, will take care of itself.”

The Rockets believe they have done much of what they wanted, even if they are certain they could do more.

“I think we put ourselves in a good position,” Chuck Hayes said. “We would like to be better, but the games we played, we feel we've been in every game. We're right there, with a chance to compete and get better.”